So, I looked to see if there were any threads on the subject before posting this thread, but if I somehow missed one then I totally understand if a Mod nukes this one.

However! In the meantime, I'm curious to hear what everyone's reading when it comes to periodicals. I'm really starting to get into appreciating beer itself, but I also come from a hospitality/food service background and intend on testing for Cicerone certification sometime in the next few years, so I hope to develop my knowledge of beer and brewing past simply homebrew and into other aspects as well.

Part of that obviously, is keeping up-to-date with trends and such, and usually magazines are one of the best ways to do that. I've been looking online to see what there is available, and I was hoping you fine folks could offer some suggestions as well.

I get beer advocate in the mail, and I love How to brew, by John Palmer. How to brew is a complete instruction for all things brewing. Extreme brewing is a great book of all extract clone recipes written by Sam Calgone of Dogfishhead. I adapt the recipes now to do as AG recipes.

Thanks for the replies so far - And I definetly agree that there are a ton of great books out there, but I'm specifically looking for info and advice on periodicals for the time being. I've got enough brewing books in my pipleline to last me to the apocalypse.

@JLem: Yeah, I figured that most folks here might have a heavier focus on homebrew-specific mags, but I figured it was worth asking. I'm interested in all of it, to be honest.

I'll second the endorsement of Zymurgy. I dropped my Brew Your Own subscription because I don't need two homdbrewing magazines and I want to be a member of the AHA for other reasons.

I know many people like it, but I actively dislike Beer Advocate.

Not just for beer but in the world generally I think people are relying less on periodicals and more on web -based resources like blogs. To keep up on the exploding Chicago beer scene, for example, I read a handful of blogs and social media, rather than periodicals.

@Pappers_: I definetly intend to keep up with a bunch of different online resources as well - I just like the hardcopy stuff too. It's also easier for me to archive and search if I need a particular bit of info.

If you don't mind explaining (either here or through PM's) I'd be very interested to hear why you're not a fan of Beer Advocate.

Fair enough. I've just started using it (the site) fairly recently, and so far I've found it to be a pretty good resource in regards to beer styles and reviews. Beyond that I really haven't explored it that deeply, so the hype you mention could still be there.